Agreement on Mutual Recognition of Documents

In fact, there are a number of countries that have signed a bilateral international agreement on mutual recognition of documents with Ukraine, thus depriving their citizens of the need for legalization if the documents travel from one of the contracting countries to another.

If you got documents from one of these countries - you are lucky. Further reading - for your consideration. Take the originals, make a translation, and certify the translator's signature notarially (the translation is usually sewn to the original) and all state authorities, institutions and enterprises have to accept such documents.

Apostille

If the destination country doesn't have an Agreement on Mutual Recognition of Documents with Ukraine but is a party in the Hague Convention of 1961, then for documents legalization the stamp of the Apostille is used.
The Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine have the right to put an apostille on documents issued in Ukraine for which the legalization is necessary.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is authorized to put the Apostille on official documents related to the sphere of education and science.
The Ministry of Justice places Apostille on documents issued by the justice and courts, as well as on documents drawn up by notaries of Ukraine.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs - on all other types of documents.

If you brought into Ukraine the documents from listed above countries and going to submit it in Ukraine, the stamp "Apostille" should be put already on, and then the procedure is equal to paragraph 1. - translation, notary certification of the translator's signature, and all documents are ready for submission on the territory of Ukraine.

Consular legalization

For other countries that did not become parties in the Hague Convention of 1961 for documents legalization there is a procedure of consular legalization. The procedure is established by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 and other international agreements.

This is probably the most complicated procedure, but even it is not something incredible.

How it works. First, it is necessary to comply legalization in the country of documents origin, to put on docs the stamps of the relevant authority institution (in different countries differently for different documents, but normally, it is the Ministry of Justice or foreign affairs), and then in Ukraine, it is necessary to put the seals of the consulate of these countries on docs. This is a first part of "full version" legalization procedure.

In our practice, we have used the so-called "simplified" consular legalization and it was quite successful. From the original docs in the country of origin, a notarial copy was made. This copy went to Ukraine, and the consulate of the country of origin od docs, via its consular channels, sent a request to the judicial authorities of the country of origin to confirm the powerty, the signature and the seal of the notary, who entrusted the copy. Upon received receipt of confirmation, the Consulate in Ukraine places a stamp on docs that prove validity. For example, receiving the receipt on consul's request to Canada took 3 business days, and placing a confirmation stamp itself took 10 minutes and held our presence.

And the last step (for full and simplified versions of consular legalization) is the seal of the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, which certifies the powers and signature of the consul. Under the expedited procedure (with double fee), this stage can be completed in one working day. Normally (without double fee) this procedure takes 3-5 business days.